Council Warns Delinquents, Annexes Top Cat

The Jackson City Council approved the annexation of property it owns and voted to advertise delinquent taxpayers during its regular meeting on Thursday, March 19, at City Hall.

With all members present, the council approved a motion by Councilman Tommy Noble to publish a notice to all delinquent taxpayers with outstanding balances over the past few years.

“We are on a path on that,” Mayor Laura Thomas informed Noble.

Noble told the Council that we would not make a motion to advertise the delinquent taxes during Thursday’s meeting, but he wanted to let the mayor and staff know that he would in the future and wanted them to be “ready for it” after the final list was compiled.

“We don’t even have to have a motion, but you can make it,” Thomas told Noble.  “You all have already voted to pursue those taxes,” she said.

After some discussion, Noble reversed course and moved that the council publish a notice in the newspaper to inform errant taxpayers that the city would “put their names in the paper if they are not paid” and the amount of their indebtedness.

Noble explained that the effort was to have a preliminary warning published before the full list of “our delinquent taxpayers, present and past, put in the paper.”  The idea of the preliminary statement is to provide payers who have not satisfied their debts time to pay them before their names are published.

Jason Hall seconded the motion, which was unanimously approved by the council.

The council gave its unanimous approval to a “consensual annexation” of the Top Cat Way property on Highway 30 West, recently purchased by the city for housing development.

Because the city owns the property, the annexation process can be accelerated, but it must still adhere to state-required procedures.

The council approved the motion and started the annexation process, which may take up to a year.

In other action, the council discussed recent questions surrounding the plan to cut grass and maintain several empty lots vacated by FEMA or state buyouts.

“We do obey the law,” Mayor Thomas told the council.  “Some people want to skirt around the law, but I don’t believe in that.”

Thomas discussed the process for securing maintenance and grass-cutting services under the Kentucky Model Procurement Code, which exempts tasks valued at $39,999 or less from the bid process.

She explained that the request was issued to identify local landscaping and lawn care maintenance companies with proper insurance to apply for local contracts.  She told the council that the idea was to “get as many local contractors to work” as possible. 

According to Thomas, the city’s staff was not large enough, and their duties were too extensive to maintain the areas during the regular workweek.  The plan was to share the responsibilities among several businesses.

Two representatives from QK4 presented preliminary ideas for various uses of the vacant lots in the City of Jackson. They announced a series of community meetings to gather residents' input on the 39 properties under study.

The council approved a policy for the Baby Surrender Box, potholes, dogs, the payment of an engineering bill for Washington Avenue work, the bills, and the payment for the preceding month.

The council adjourned after a session of one hour and seventeen minutes.